Harold Arlen

0

In a rare event, one that could happen only once in every millenium, two insignificant celestial objects colided. That happens often, but this time, it kindled a massive celestial event that shaped the world as we know it.

A young vaudeville wannabe named Joey was going nowhere with his act — a pantomime accompanied by records. He was able to get jobs on the theater circuit in the days before motion pictures put the live stage out of business, but it was a meager living.

Another show-biz climber named Dino had trouble holding a job — the bandleaders said he was too derivative and he needed to get a nose job if he wanted to be serious.

They met while both were on the bill at one of the minor mob-owned clubs in Atlantic City in 1945. The owner wasn’t happy with either one and threatened to fire them if the late show that evening didn’t get better attendance.

Joey went to Dean and proposed that they disrupt the program — they had nothing to lose. So when Dino went out to sing, Joey acted like one of the club’s waiters and caused a commotion by dropping plates and breaking glasses. Dino acted angry and told him to get out and quit disturbing the audience. Joey heckled the singer, the singer heckled back — and the audience loved it.

The pair repeated the orchestrated fiasco three times a night at the club, and word got out that this was the place to go. There were long lines of people waiting to get in. The pair got offers to play other places for more money.

Dino got his nose job. Joey Levitch changed his name to Jerry Lewis — and the rest is history.

For ten years, Martin and Lewis were the top act in show biz. They made movies, they made records, they played sold out performances, they made money — hoo boy did they make a lot of money!

And then, for whatever reasons, they parted — and not on the best of terms.

Then, the world waited to see if either of them could make it alone. Was the singer good enough to compete without the comic?

And the surprise ending to the story is — the comic actually had a gold record before the singer did. The comic’s next movies — basically the same formula with different actors — were successful and the singer’s next movies were flops.

The surprise success of the comic’s singing career depended upon the fragile superstar Judy Garland. Garland had to cancel a performance in Las Vegas (reportedly because of strep throat), and her husband/manager Sid Luft asked Jerry to fill in. Legend has it that 30 year old Jerry — who hadn’t sung alone onstage since he was 5 years old — didn’t know what he could do at the last minute, so he asked what songs Judy was going to sing that night. One was the standard “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby” made famous by Al Jolson — who was Jerry’s idol. They orchestra had the arrangement and was well rehearsed, so Jerry said he’d do that song (he also did “Come Rain Or Come Shine” – a Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen hit).

Jerry hit the stage, and schmaltzed it up — did his impersonation of Jolie — and the crowd went wild. He told jokes of course, but the musical performance was such a hit that he got an offer to put it out as a record — and that is what launched his solo career.

Meanwhile, Dino was getting buried by the critics for the flop of his first post-Jerry movie, “10,000 Bedrooms” and worse — the movie lost over a million dollars (steep in those days).

But neither success nor failure can erase the historical significance of Martin and Lewis — alone or together.

Jerry’s main contribution to the world was his tireless devotion the the Muscular Dystrophy campaign — which brings us to the reason for this essay:

Another Labor Day without Jerry Lewis is so sad for those of us who grew up catching snatches of his marathon telethon. Fortunately highlights survive and can be easily accessed online. The schmaltz of Jerry Lewis survives — as do his movies and recordings.

Frank Sinatra surprises Jerry by bringing Dino onstage at the telethon 20 years after they split.

For that, we are thankful. And for Labor Day — so sorry, you have to get along without Jer.

Filed under Entertainment by on . Comment#

0

Assuming you want to learn more about songwriting, and assuming you agree with me that you can learn a lot by studying the old masters, I can give you a resource that will give you a basic and graduate education.

Songwriting Tools -- Ella Fitzgerald's Song Books

The Ella Fitzgerald Song Books were records issued from the mid-50s to the mid-60s by VERVE, a Jazz label known for having the top talent in the field.

Verve guru Norman Granz came up with the idea for this series, which basically delineated the Great American Songbook (GAS). Now, the GAS is not a formal list of music, but it is basically a repertoire that is agreed-upon by people as the Standards (with a capital “S”) of popular music prior to the rock and roll era.

What makes a song a standard? And why would you like to write a standard?

The term is given to songs that are so great that they never go out of style and most popular singers like to record their versions. Don’t let the “pre-rock and roll” tag fool you. These songs are still recorded many times a year by big stars. In the past we have seen collections of standards from people like Rod Stewart, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Harry Nilsson, and the Supremes who were big stars in the 60s and 70s and found new audiences when their own style of music was no longer in great demand.

Recently, Lady Gaga teamed up with 40s and 50s crooner Tony Bennet to record those same standards. Michael Buble has been active for about 15 years keeping the Sinatra torch burning for new audiences. Queen Latifah broke away from her hip-hop base with “The Dana Owens Album” (guess what her real name is?). And Cyndi Lauper had some girl-fun with the standards too.

The benefits to a songwriter are apparent — constant royalty checks from getting your songs recorded over and over. Even if you beat the odds and make the pop charts, your song may only have a shelf-life of a few months. An “evergreen” standard can be your retirement program and support you the rest of your life.

Ella Fitzgerald was the perfect person to present the great songbooks. Her voice was versatile and she could handle anything from “sweet” to “hot.” Even without the songbooks, she would have been considered legendary. We are fortunate she made these albums.

Two things that set Ella’s songbooks apart from the many other collections of GAS:

1.) She usually includes the verse. Terminology has changed in the past century, but basically what we know a song today is usually the refrain (or sometimes called chorus) of the song. Take a well-known song like “My Funny Valentine” and you will discover that there is an introduction to the song you may never have heard before. Ella’s version is one of the best (of course). It was traditional for a song to have a verse. Later, the verse was dropped and a lot of the short-attention-span people would say, “Don’t bore us, skip to the chorus). Trivia: Jerome Kern preferred the term “burthen” — an archaic term. That’s just the kind of guy he was, and you’ll see it written on sheet music.

2.) Norman Granz made sure she had the best arrangers of the day in the studio with her — the people that made the biggest hits with Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. The arrangements range from large, lush orchestras to swinging big bands to cool and smooth small jazz combos. They frame Ella’s voice perfectly and Ella is a chameleon who can take on any style.

The collection includes eight albums. Most have more than one disc. They all start with “Ella Fitzgerald Sings …” and the titles are —

… the Cole Porter Songbook (1956)
… the Rodgers & Hart Songbook (1956)
… the Duke Ellington Songbook (1957) (Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn)
… the Irving Berlin Songbook (1958)
… the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (1959)
… the Harold Arlen Songbook (1961)
… the Jerome Kern Songbook (1963)
… the Johnny Mercer Songbook (1964)

And there was one later addition that Granz convinced Ella to record for another label (Pablo Records in 1981 that was not “American” — but many of the songs are standards that are included on GAS albums:

… the Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook (Portuguese title: Ella Abraça Jobim) (1981) Jobim was a Brasilian songwriter and performer who brought his Bossa Nova stylings to the mainstream. He wrote for and even recorded with Sinatra and his songs have been covered by all the stars of the GAS.

Verve reissued the eight albums in 1994 in a boxed set and won the 1995 Grammy for Best Historical Recording.

When I say these recordings are great learning tools, I am not saying that you have to learn to write these types of songs.

What I am saying is that you can learn what can be done … and learn tricks used by the greatest songwriters of the 20th century. Most of the techniques of songwriting — even the songs at the top of the charts today — are old. Maybe more than a century old. They come from roots in other countries as well as the USA.

And of course these are not the only examples that you should pay attention to. There are many great songs that have been written through history.

But if you really love music and you really love songwriting, you won’t view these songs as some drudgery like school homework. You will greedily consume them and keep returning to them whenever you feel the need for inspiration.

But I urge you — pay attention to the music. Pay attention to the lyrics. Learn from these songs.

And like consuming good food, these will nourish your talent and make you into a powerful songwriter.

Filed under Creativity by on . Comment#

0

Dory Previn died on Valentine’s day.  She was 86.

Known mostly for her work on songs for the movies, she also had some success in the pop field with records released in the 70s.  She and her first husband, André Previn, were nominated several times for an Academy Award but never won.

Her six records were recorded after her divorce from Previn, her most successful being a live album.

Dory Previn

Dory Previn

Her songs were intelligent and insightful and most dealt with her personal life, which was a fertile field.  Her abusive father was gassed in WWI and suffered severe mood swings which resulted in violent behavior.  He deteriorated to the point where he boarded his family up in their home and held them at gunpoint for several months.

She broke into show business as Read more on Dory Previn — 1925 to 2012…

Filed under Songwriting by on . Comment#